Category: Worldwide

Fresh off collaborations with Cordae, DJ Premier, and Jessie Reyez, Lil Wayne has announced the dates and lineup for the return of his music festival, Lil Weezyana Fest, after taking 2023 off.

The Lil Weezyana Festival returns to Smoothie King Center arena on November 2, with performances from Rob49 and Lil Wayne’s former group, Hot Boys. The Hot Boys performance will be the first time the quartet of B.G, Juvenile, Lil Wayne, and Turk have performed as a group since 2003. A reunion of the group was billed for Essence Fest this year, but Wayne ended up performing his own, separate set, to fans’ confusion and chagrin.

The group was disbanded after Juvenile and B.G accused Cash Money Records CEO Birdman of not paying them. Three of the group’s members, B.G, Turk, and Wayne, then spent significant time serving prison sentences for various offenses — mostly surrounding firearms possession charges. Turk was released from prison in October 2012 after serving nine years for being a felon in possession of a firearm and other charges; B.G served 11 years on possession of a firearm and was released last year; Lil Wayne spent the least amount of time in prison for possession and has been the most active member of the group musically since 2011. Juvenile remains the only member who was never incarcerated.

In addition to the Hot Boys reunion, the flyer for Lil Weezyana Fest touts a DJ set from former Cash Money producer Mannie Fresh, as well as “surprise guests,” which have, in the past, included Drake — who could use a strong bounce back after his early 2024 struggles with Kendrick Lamar.

Harry Lawtey is known for his role of Rob on HBO’s Industry, who cannot catch a break, as noted by social media. In Joker 2, Lawtey is trading in the suit for… another suit, this time as Gotham’s own Harvey Dent. Unfortunately, his luck isn’t great either, but we’ll wait to see the film for how that plays out.

In a new clip from Joker: Folie à Deux, Lawtey is revealed to be starring as a young Dent. In the original DC comics, Dent eventually turns to his own evil side as Two-Face, one of Batman’s enemies. In the new footage from Joker 2, Dent is still in his early district attorney days, so his luck hasn’t run out yet.

Joker: Folie à Deux is Todd Phillips’ follow-up to 2019’s Joker and sees Arthur as a patient at Arkham State Hospital where he meets Lee, a music therapist, and the two embark on a musical love story rooted in a shared delusion. Romance is alive and well over in Gotham!

“Arthur Fleck is a monster,” Lawtey says as Dent in the trailer. “He knew exactly what he was doing. His depraved acts of violence led to riots by his followers, and they are still willing to commit acts of violence in his name.”

It’s unclear how much of a role Dent will have in the sequel, but hopefully it will be better than Robert Spearing’s last few years with Pierpoint & Co.

Joker: Folie à Deux hits theaters on October 4th.

Another week, another roster of Crumbl Cookies! After two weeks in a row on the Crumbl beat I can confirm that I am obsessed. A cookie obsession is maybe the most delicious obsession a person can have, and after rolling up to the Labor Day BBQ with a big box of Crumbl, I’m now everyone in my circle’s favorite person.

Be the person who shows up to parties with a box of crumble, tequila, and other party favors and you will never go hungry again. I’m still getting thank you texts!

As much as I liked last week’s lineup (shout out to the winner of last week’s ranking, Pumpkin Square), I have to say that this week’s lineup is even stronger. There wasn’t a single dud in the six cookie roster. Any one of these could be someone’s favorite. That means you can hit Crumbl this week without feeling super bummed that your pick of choice is sold out. Everyone wins, and we love to see that.

So which cookie is going to be the hardest for you to pick up? It’s a two-way tie between the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice-themed “Afterlife Cake,” and the Banana Bread. But popularity doesn’t always equal deliciousness… so, without further ado, let’s dive into this week’s ranking.

6. Strawberry Shortcake Cookie

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Last week, Crumbl had a very similar cookie to this one called “Berries & Cream.” The flavor was refreshing and wonderfully complex — I’m sorry to say I don’t feel the same about this one.

The Strawberry Shortcake comes across as a little one-note to me. Over a soft cake cookie, you have a house-made strawberry jam over a spread of whipped cream. The flavor here is light and bright, with an intense strawberry-forward sweetness.

This cookie needs a darker, richer component to balance the intense sweetness. The Berries & Cream had that, this doesn’t.

The Bottom Line:

A bright cookie that comes across as a little too sweet for my liking. Granted, if you love Strawberry Shortcake, you’ll be really happy with this.

5. Churro

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Looks-wise, this cookie leaves a lot to be desired. It looks straight-up unappetizing.

But if you love churros, you’re going to love this. This cookie has a nice mix of cinnamon and white sugar with a buttercream swirl on top that is dusted with even more cinnamon sugar.

It has a dark and rich sweetness to it, with gentle spicy cinnamon notes. I also love the texture here, it has a dusty and crumbly exterior that reveals a gooey, soft center once you bite into it.

The Bottom Line:

It’s easily the ugly duckling of this week’s Crumbl lineup, but the flavor slaps. This is a delicious cinnamon-forward cookie.

4. The Afterlife Cake

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Crumbl has a reputation for its tie-in snacks (Olivia Rodrigo has dropped her own cookie and Sabrina Carpenter has already teased her Crumbl-collab) and while thematically the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice-themed After Cake would’ve worked better in October (aka spooky season), this is the way it has to be since the movie hits theaters this week.

The Afterlife Cake features two mini chocolate cake layers sandwiched together with vanilla cream and topped with vanilla and dark chocolate cream cheese frosting. It’s incredibly moist, decadent, and cocoa-forward. The cake on its own is intensely sweet, but the frosting emphasizes that sweetness further.

I love this cake, but I can’t handle more than a few forkfuls.

The Bottom Line:

A very rich cocoa-forward dark chocolate cake. Great for sharing.

3. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunk

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

I have a feeling I’m always going to be ranking Crumbl’s chocolate chip cookies highly. It makes sense, as of all the cookies in the world, chocolate chip is my absolute favorite.

Last week I gave the Milk Chocolate Chip the number three spot, and this week here we are again with the Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunk also taking number three. This one is even better than last week’s, it has bigger chunks of chocolate that balance sweet and earthy cocoa notes with just a touch of sea salt, combined with a buttery brown sugar base.

There is a lot od depth and complexity to this otherwise standard cookie.

The Bottom Line:

Crumbl’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunk is a step-up from the often-returning Milk Chocolate Chip. Get this one while you can!

2. Triple Chocolate Chip

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

Crumbl’s Triple Chocolate Chip feels like a greatest hits cookie. The chocolate base is a balance of moist and crumbly textures akin to the surface of a fresh-baked brownie. It’s loaded with a mix of semi-sweet chunks, white chocolate and milk chocolate chips.

It’s rich and decadent like the Afterlife Cake without being overwhelmingly sweet.

The Bottom Line:

The perfect cookie for chocolate and chocolate chip lovers.

1. Banana Bread

Thoughts & Tasting Notes:

This is our second Crumbl Cookie ranking, and once again our top choice isn’t a cookie at all. I’m starting to think Crumbl makes better cakes than cookies.

This banana bread loaf is ecstasy for the senses. I didn’t even need to open the box to smell the inviting sweet banana and cinnamon tones wafting from this loaf. A forkful is a true treat for the senses, aside from the intoxicating smell you’ve got an incredibly moist cake that has a wonderful mix of earthy brown sugar tones, cinnamon spice, and caramelized banana.

Topping the loaf is some crunchy cinnamon streusel, which adds an interesting textural element to this super moist cake. This was easily my top pick this week, it’s not even close. Maybe next week a cookie will win. We’ll see!

The Bottom Line:

Maybe one of the banana bread loaves I’ve ever eaten. This is a must order.

Find your nearest Crumbl Cookies here.

When Mike Flanagan opted to adapt Stephen King’s short story The Life Of Chuck, to the big screen, King himself wasn’t even sure if it would work. “His initial responses to me were a little like, ‘Oh, okay. Yeah. If you think that’s a movie…,’” Flanagan told Vanity Fair. Flanagan was so dedicated, he decided to produce the film independent of a studio, and thus The Life Of Chuck really came to life — thanks to a particularly impressive dance sequence.

In The Life Of Chuck, Flanagan tells the story of Chuck in reverse chronological order, and it is revealed that dancing is a huge part of the accountant’s life ahead of his retirement. This made it important for the movie, too, which is why Flanagan was set on getting noted good dancer Tom Hiddleston involved.

Flanagan was shown a clip of Hiddleston’s lively moves which prompted him to cast the actor instead of someone unknown. “He had a completely unfiltered joy on his face,” Flanagan told the outlet. “He was a good dancer, but that wasn’t what struck me. I wasn’t amazed by the technique so much as the degree of happiness that was radiating off of him. The look on his face made me smile the same way I smiled reading that particular portion of the book.”

Hiddleston didn’t just waltz onto set, he was dedicated to his dancing role, and took months to prepare. “I had to learn in six weeks the full regime of any dance training. We did jazz, swing, salsa, cha-cha, the Charleston, bossa nova, polka, quickstep, samba. We were trying to tip our hat to anything that might have influenced Chuck,” he added. “It might’ve had a bit of Gene Kelly or Fred and Ginger. Certainly moonwalking—Stephen King is very specific about the moonwalk.” Hiddleston has really improved since that fateful night of dancing that led to a relationship with Taylor Swift.

In the end, Hiddleston’s hard work paid off. “I burned holes in my shoes,” Hiddleston says. “I was dancing out on the asphalt in Alabama, and by the time we’d finished, you could see my socks through the soles.” Just another reason to invest in a Mama Mia threequel.

Flanagan has previously called the film “a tenacious little miracle of a movie from the start,” and even King had kinder words after he saw a cut of the film. Dancing really can heal the world…maybe.

The Life Of Chuck premieres at TIFF on September 6th.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Lady Gaga has spent much of this year teasing her upcoming seventh album. In January, she shared photos of herself in the studio. In May, her Gaga Chromatica Ball concert film confirmed an album with the message, “LG7 GAGA RETURNS.” While in Paris for the Olympics, Gaga played some samples of new music.

Through it all, one thing we haven’t gotten is an indication of when we can expect the album cycle to begin. Finally, there’s news on that front: Gaga is planning to release the project’s first single in October.

Today (September 3), Gaga posted a photo of a printed itinerary written in a mix of English and Italian. It says:

“VFF Itinerario per Madame Lady Gaga
Tuesday 03 September: WB welcome dinner
Wednesday 04 September: FAD World Premiere & Press Conference
6:20pm CEST: Red Carpet
Thursday 05 September: FAD European Press Junket

Date Importanti
04 October: Joker: Folie à Deux in theaters
XX October: LG7 first single”

Given that the upcoming song is being referred to as the “first single” in the final item on that Joker: Folie à Deux-heavy agenda, it would seem Gaga’s recent Bruno Mars collaboration “Die With A Smile” is a standalone single and not part of the forthcoming album.

There was a bit of drama with the slate of new album releases from August 23. Sabrina Carpenter dropped her album Short N’ Sweet the same day Travis Scott re-released his mixtape Days Before Rodeo, and it looked like Carpenter had Scott’s feud with Nicki Minaj on the brain.

It turns out both projects had just about an equal chance to top the latest Billboard 200 chart (dated September 7), and the race was incredibly close. Now, we know who won: Billboard announced today (September 3) that Short N’ Sweet is No. 1.

It claimed the title thanks to 362,000 equivalent album units in the US during the week ending August 29. Days Before Rodeo was very, very close behind with “a little over 361,000” units. So, there was a difference of about a thousand, or less than 1 percent, between the two projects’ unit numbers.

Short N’ Sweet is Carpenter’s first No. 1 album, beating her previous best performer Emails I Can’t Send, which peaked at No. 23. This follows “Please Please Please” becoming Carpenter’s first No. 1 single on the Hot 100.

In other Carpenter news, she killed (and kissed) Jenna Ortego in her “Taste” video, was all over Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show, and had maybe her best “Nonsense” outro yet on Chicken Shop Date.

Imagine Dragons is taking one small step for man, one giant leap for broadcasting songs from the Moon.

Last year, the Las Vegas-based trio of Dan Reynolds, Wayne Sermon, and Ben McKee recorded a song, “Children Of The Sky,” for the open-world video game Starfield. The track hasn’t been played during Imagine Dragons’ Loom World Tour yet, because the band was saving it for a special occasion.

Billboard reports that “Children Of The Sky” will make its live debut at the band’s Hollywood Bowl show on October 27 featuring the Los Angeles Film Orchestra and composer Inon Zur. The song will then be “transmitted back to Earth from the surface of the Moon as part of Lonestar’s Freedom Mission flying with Intuitive Machines to the South Lunar Pole in early 2025.”

“Our goal is to inspire the next generation of kids to be excited about the future of space and technology, which is why we chose ‘Children of the Sky’ as the first song in history to be broadcast from the Moon,” Ryan Micheletti, an investor in Lonestar through The Veteran Fund, said in a statement.

Imagine Dragons themselves will not be on the Moon, although they could probably afford a trip up there.

You can buy tickets for the Hollywood Bowl concert here and listen to “Children Of The Sky” (non-Moon edition) below.

Beyoncé’s fanbase is notorious for their intensity but also for their sensitivity. If they even think Cowboy Carter has been insulted, they’ll lash out without hesitation.

Which might be why Timeless producer Kaytranda did some preemptive damage control before his recent comments about Drake and Beyoncé could be taken out of context. So, what did Kaytranada say about Beyoncé that had the Beyhive so riled up?

In a recent interview with Vulture, the producer recounted his experience nearly producing for Drake. Elsewhere in the interview, Kaytranda also revealed why a similar opportunity to produce for Beyoncé never panned out.

After crafting a remix of Beyoncé’s Renaissance song “Cuff It,” Kaytra said he withheld the remix from streaming after being lowballed on a payment offer by Beyoncé’s team, which he called, “less money than what much smaller artists have paid.” He also noted that Bey would have retained “all the rights to the song.” “Sometimes, people don’t see your worth and how important you are. I know what I mean to people.”

Some Beyoncé fans felt this was disparaging to the original artist, and were quick to let Kaytranada know, prompting him to write a post on Twitter clarifying his statement. “Mannnn I didn’t drag her that’s just what happened,” he wrote, in the since-deleted post. “The remix didn’t get a release and it is what it is but later that year I opened [for] her on tour AND on her Bday on top of that. Now what? I love that girl & y’all ain’t gonna make me look like I ain’t rocking with her.”

Nobody has a better front-row perspective to the growth and development of pop music — and how it affects pop culture — than DJs. As the party controllers, they are the ones who set the vibes, yes, but they also get to see trends as they play out in real time. Sometimes, they’re even the ones sparking those trends.

In much the same way, so much of American culture has come from the Black experience: jazz, rock & roll, hip-hop, and dance music all started in music halls and underground venues catering to a Black American clientele that was often barred from more mainstream spaces.

One of the spaces that Black folks were kept out of was higher education. And so, as we found juke joints and empty rec rooms to develop jazz and launch hip-hop, Historically Black Colleges and Universities became cultural hot spots, where new movements in politics and art were nurtured and primed to change the course of American history.

In looking to gain some new insights and perspectives on how HBCUs have impacted America’s various party scenes, there was no better resource to turn to than LA native DJ R-Tistic. A veteran of the DJ scene, playing everything from local weekly residencies to corporate gigs to Coachella, R-Tistic has seen every kind of party imaginable. And, as a graduate of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University — also known as Florida A&M or FAMU — he’s got the unique experience of seeing how Black student life can have an outsized impact on social and cultural standards, even hundreds of miles away.

Can you tell me a little bit about what your experience at FAMU was like and how that has informed your approach to your craft today?

I didn’t start DJing until I got there and I was… Plugging in my laptop. Initially I didn’t even plan to be a DJ. It was more so, it just happened throughout time. But I would say it influences it in so many ways because the main thing is that everybody’s coming from somewhere different. So at that time, this is the mid-2000s, when I feel like everybody’s music was so different. You can argue and say that it’s still different sounds now, but overall we know it’s a lot more similar. Back then, St. Louis had Chingy and J-Kwon and Nelly versus LA having Snoop and Game. And even The Bay sounded different from LA back then.

My first time doing a New Orleans party, they were like, “But you from LA. You don’t know our real music. All you know is Lil Wayne. We wanna hear Webbie.” At a HBCU, I think everybody comes in as a freshman kind of arrogant because it’s like, you coming from whatever city you came from. You think your city’s the best. I got there playing Bad Azz and Eastsidaz and Suga Free, and they’re like, “Why you playing this happy music?” Harlem dudes are playing all Dipset. And even Harlem and Brooklyn going at it, talking about Dipset versus Jay-Z or the Philly dudes and D Bloc. So I feel like it was just the fact that we had so many different styles, and we got to really meet people and see how they reacted to it.

I remember it was a group called Dude ‘n Nem, they had a song called “Watch My Feet.”

Juke, juke, juke, juke!

I would’ve had no idea what it was. It would’ve sounded foreign to my ears if I was just in LA hearing it because I was out there, and I heard, “Bang, bang, bang, skeet, skeet, skeet, and let me bang.” It made sense when I heard it. So it’s just the fact that you hear so many different varieties [at HBCUs].

I think over time, as the blogosphere moved in, that replaced that in-person experience.

In some ways it did. It is still different because even when I go back now, you’ll still hear more regional music. For FAMU specifically, it’s different only in that because of the cost of everything, I don’t think there’s as many out-of-state students as it used to be when I was there. Whenever I go to the Hood clubs out there now just to check in, I do hear a lot more of the southern music and just Florida music than I hear the other sounds. The blog area and social media and streaming, it did kind of homogenize things to an extent, but you still will get a different variety.

A lot of those artists had sounds that didn’t match where they were from. Even Kendrick. People argue now that “Not Like Us” is his first LA song. [Writer’s Note: Those people are SUPER wrong.] I get what they mean because “Swimming Pools” and those songs did not have a traditional West Coast sound. I think they grew up in the era where they didn’t really have as much of a direct connection to that regional sound. So they made music that appealed based on what they grew up watching on 106 & Park versus what was really local.

How did the melting pot aspect of going to an HBCU help those artists break through, then?

We had a showcase called “Rep Your City,” where each city had their own two minutes to play their regional song and do a dance. So Chicago did “Bang Bang Bang Skeet Skeet.” We might’ve did a “Wrong Idea” or something like that. We crip up. The Bay had a little hyphy moment. Everybody had their own little moments. And some people got booed. They booed us just because it was like, “What is this LA music?”

A lot of folks are still stuck in whatever their region is into. Freshman year, everybody gravitates toward what city they’re from, and that’s your whole identity. So I think that, that flattening happens at HBCUs because after a couple of years you start meeting friends from different places.

I always wondered what kind of role the HBCU college scene played in accelerating or even in breaking things. Because a lot of times people would come back from school, and they would know what song was about to hit even before it hit on a national level. It almost feels like that’s the spot where everything starts. As much as we talk about “Black people generate culture in America,” I feel like that’s the microcosm.

Yeah, for sure. I remember bringing K-Wang back to LA in ’02, ’03 first time I heard it and I couldn’t dance to it, but people just liked the beat. And then I didn’t hear it to get in LA until ’08. And now it’s crazy because it’s a whole line dance to it. I think a lot of times it did accelerate things, because I remember even in high school when my boy, his older brother was at Morehouse, and he told me, he was like, “Hey, Jay-Z got a song with Twista called, ‘Is That Your Bitch?’ And Missy’s on there too.”

I had a homie who went to Clark, and once he got to Clark, all he liked was Atlanta music. So he got back, he was playing Bone Crusher and Drama and Pastor Troy in LA. I realized that a lot of the major DJs around the country are from HBCUs, from Young Guru to Drama and Cannon and Jae Murphy.

There’s been talk of whether HBCUs are still relevant. Politically, there have been a lot of arguments against HBCUs that have gotten louder. What do you see as the primary benefit beyond music, beyond anything else, of having HBCUs as not just learning institutions, but as cultural centers, as places that are for us in the climate that we currently exist in?

It’s an argument that I feel like anybody who even questions why they exist, they’re already going to be turned off and not really open to hearing the true answer. One argument is always that the real world isn’t all Black, but nobody white would ever tell somebody white to not go to Harvard or Yale or any other school that’s 70% or 90% white. “Don’t go there because that’s not diverse.” You never hear that.

For us going into the real world, it made no difference. Once I graduated, I realized that it made no difference because the only difference between us and other folks is when it comes to cultural references. That means we might have a joke about The Wood, they might have a joke about Breakfast Club. But even with that, we can watch a movie. We can learn “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

It’s more so them just realizing that Black students might not have the same advantages to begin with. So I had classes where the actual professor called me one night at 1:00 AM on a Thursday, like, “Hey Ron, you didn’t turn in these four assignments. Hey, if you don’t turn those in, you might not pass.”

And that’s 1:00 AM on Thursday. I spent until 7:00 AM working on that and turned it in. And it’s like that type of experience wouldn’t happen at a white school at all. I doubt it would. Maybe it would, but I doubt that because it was a Black teacher who felt like I was his nephew.

Right. He was trying to get you through the class, graduated from the school, so that you’re in a position where, okay, if you’re going to sink or swim, but at least get you on that platform first.

Get on that platform. Yeah.

The autumn album slate is taking shape. Becky G announced her forthcoming album, Encuentros, alongside the single “COMO DIABLOS.” FLO will finally drop their debut LP Access All Areas in November, and “Bending My Rules” is a formidable appetizer. Jamie xx also offered up a taste from his looming In Waves album.

Check that out and more in Uproxx’s Best New Pop Music roundup below.

Becky G — “COMO DIABLOS”

Becky G coupled her Encuentros album announcement with the release of “COMO DIABLOS,” an emotionally charged single about a painful heartbreak. Becky G told Rolling Stone that Encuentros is “Esquinas at night,” referencing her LP from last September. That vibe bleeds through in the Leo Aguirre-directed “COMO DIABLOS” video filmed in Monterrey, Mexico. “It’s about how internalizing your emotions turns into this power that’s inward, but also how that translates outward,” Becky G told Rolling Stone. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be an anger that is explosive, but it can still have this vibration that causes the ground to shake.” Encuentros is due out on October 10.

LE SSERAFIM — “Crazy”

In late February, LE SSERAFIM dropped “Easy,” which became the rising K-pop girl group’s first-career charter on the Billboard Hot 100. CRAZY, their fourth mini album out now, could produce a few more Hot 100 hits. The five-track project includes the BloodPop-produced “1-800-hot-n-fun,” which LE SSERAFIM debuted at Coachella, but “Crazy” is the standout track. The Nu Kim-directed video is captivating, with impressive choreography to accentuate tech house beats. You’d also be hard-pressed to find a more Instagram-ready hook than “All the girls are girling girling.”

FLO — “Bending My Rules”

To be clear, “Bending My Rules” finds FLO firmly in their slow jam R&B bag. It qualifies as pop because FLO possesses undeniable mass appeal. The track released shortly after the award-winning British trio announced Access All Areas, their debut LP, will arrive this November. Jorja Douglas, Renée Downer, and Stella Quaresma have never sounded better than on “Bending My Rules,” effortlessly delivering pristine harmonies and smooth vocal runs. “‘Bending My Rules’ is such a captivating song and a softer side of FLO,” the band said in a statement, as per Stereogum. “It shows our vulnerability, and it speaks to our current relationships with our boyfriends. It’s hard to be a baddie and a lover girl, but sometimes you just have to Bend Your Rules.”

Jamie xx Feat. Kelsey Lu, John Glacier & Panda Bear — “Dafodil”

Jamie xx will release his In Waves album on September 20, and “Dafodil” holds a special place on the tracklist. “‘Dafodil’ was one of the first pieces of music that I made for this album,” the English DJ and producer wrote on Instagram. “It was actually the song that made me realize I could finally make another album. I am forever grateful to Kelsey Lu, with whom this song began as voice notes about a hazy night we both remembered. Thank you to John Glacier and Panda Bear whose voices perfectly evoke the unique feeling of summer nights in London.” The dynamic track is mesmerizing and further solidifies Jamie xx as a limitless experimenter.

AleXa — “Joy Of Missing Out”

Nobody can question AleXa’s versatility. “Joy Of Missing Out,” AleXa’s fourth English-language song of 2024, is a far cry from K-pop, but the Oklahoma native seems right at home in a pop-punk palette. “I, myself, am an extrovert, but I’m the only one in my friend group,” AleXa said in a statement. “This song goes out to all those who’d rather party by themselves than get lost in the crowd.” Incidentally, “Joy Of Missing Out” shows why AleXa never has to worry about getting lost in any crowd.

Zedd Feat. John Mayer — “Automatic Yes”

On August 30, Zedd released Telos, his first LP since 2015’s True Colors. Before the 10-track album arrived in full, Zedd dropped “Out Of Time” featuring Bea Miller and “Lucky” featuring Remi Wolf. Both songs showcased Zedd’s world-class ability to mold soundscapes best suited for any kind of vocalist, and “Automatic Yes” featuring John Mayer multiplies that notion. Dance-pop and more soulful beats blend seamlessly. The drop is set up by Mayer softly singing, “I don’t wanna be the same mistake you make again / Yes, I’m gonna keep my promise / but if you ever ask me, it’s an / Automatic, automatic yes, yes, yes, I wanna.” Maybe the highest compliment to Zedd is that “Automatic Yes” could easily live on a John Mayer album.

Coco & Clair Clair — “My Girl”

Coco & Clair Clair are back with Girl, their nine-track album encompassing the Atlanta-bred duo’s affinity for unconventional risks — lyrically and sonically. It pays off with “My Girl.” “‘My Girl’ is an ode to your best friend, the girls you meet in the bathroom at the club, your idol, whoever it is that makes you feel on top of the world and like nobody can f*ck with you,” Coco and Clair said in a statement. “We’re not worrying about other people anymore. Let’s go out, have fun, and let the beat rock.” Coco & Clair Clair will do precisely that on their 21-date headlining North American tour, beginning on October 1 in Montréal, Québec, Canada.

James Bay — “Easy Distraction”

“Easy Distraction” was co-written by James Bay and The Killers’ Brandon Flowers, and it’s all I need to hear to know I’d like for James Bay and Brandon Flowers to write more songs together. The upbeat single finds Bay in a familiar pocket: Pouring his guts out atop anthemic, soaring instrumentals. “The song is about realizing too late that someone means so much to you, but you still want to show them and let them know,” the three-time Grammy nominee said in a statement. “It’s exploring how, in the face of adversity, we can still reach out; we can still connect.” “Easy Distraction” follows folksy, rollicking “Up All Night” with Noah Kahan and The Lumineers as singles from Bay’s forthcoming fourth LP, Changes All The Time, due out on October 4.

Greyson Chance — “Meet Me Outside”

Greyson Chance has been ramping up his output in recent months with “Rearview Mirror,” “Haymaker,” and now “Meet Me Outside.” The acoustic single is beautifully wistful. Chance displays vocal range injected with raw emotion, singing, “And all of those white picket fences were built to protect you from me / Why can’t you see? / I’ll never meet your parents / I’ll never drink their wine / They’ll never hang up a frame with our picture inside / We’ll never walk down the aisle / And maybe that’s alright / So I’ll keep the car running baby / Meet me outside.” Chance explained the inspiration behind the song here.

Daydreamers — “Don’t Delete My Number”

Daydreamers selflessly made the perfect summer outro in “Don’t Delete My Number,” which hinges upon the harsh reconciliation of knowing a blissful romance had to end with the summer but wishing it could last forever. “Don’t delete my number / Because I still remember this summer,” Riley sings in the refrain. The British alt-pop band’s lead vocalist added in a statement, “To me, Daydreamers is ‘sad euphoria.’ The lyrics will tear your heart out, but the music is euphoric.”